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What to Pack on Your Next Camping Trip (a free printable!)

We love camping. It’s our go-to family vacation and our favorite way to spend the weekend. Even though August is quickly coming to a close (HOW?), fall offers some of the coziest weather for camping. The days are warm and the nights are cool. They’re perfect for afternoon hikes and evenings around the campfire. In short: our favorite.

This summer, we’ve felt like camping rookies in the packing department. One trip, we forgot our camp chairs. On our trip to the UP, we left our campfire forks and hobo pie maker in the garden shed. And this past weekend, we got 10 miles from home and realized we didn’t pack the air mattress. That was the proverbial last straw, and I immediately started a list of everything we could possibly need for a long weekend of tent camping with our little family.

Along with being a better packer who doesn’t forget things, I vow to get better about planning our camping meals. I’m awesome at meal planning at home, but when we go camping, I throw caution to the wind and our menu looks a lot like brats, hobo pies, and s’mores on repeat. While I love all those foods, we can do better than that!

And so, I did what any logical woman in 2017 would do: I made a printable. On the front, there’s a list of all of the camp supplies we could possibly need, with space for extras. On the back, there’s space for 5 days of meals, as well as a list for what items come out of my pantry and what I have to buy at the store. I feel like I’ve upped our camping game substantially with this list. Not that we won’t forget things again (we totally will), but hopefully from here on out, we’ll remember the big and important stuff!